Chapter 285: Nine-nine, Eighty-one Refinement
Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire
More haste, less speed!
Alchemy was an extremely profound skill. If there was just a little bit of error, in better situations, one’s efforts would go down the drain. However, in more serious situations, both the furnace and the person would be destroyed.
The more this was so, the more Feng Lin wouldn’t be anxious and would remain calm and composed instead.
When his mind was calm, with no hints of ripples at all, he started getting to work.
Lighting up the furnace!
Feng Lin formed a seal with his fingers, and a hint of purple sparks shot out from them. The faint sparks contained extremely scorching heat energy. The moment it landed into the furnace, the furnace was instantly lit up, erupting blazing flames.
Open furnace!
He slapped his palm onto the furnace and with a popping sound, the lid flew out.
Dragon-leaf Grass!
Ten blades of the mysterious grass with scales, head, and a tail like that of a dragon were tossed into the furnace. They were rapidly refined into residue, leaving behind only a lump of green liquid beads.
Mystic Yin Water!
Feng Lin used his mental power to extract 100 milliliters of Mystic Yin Water into the air, turning them into a liquid arrow and sinking them into the green liquid beads. They rapidly expanded, condensing into ice crystals. Even when scorched by the flames, they didn’t melt at all and were emitting bone-piercing chill.
He quickly formed seals, and flames erupted out with a bang, turning into blue flames that melted everything.
The mystic ice finally started to melt, bit by bit, once again turning into a greenish-black liquid.
Life Replenishing Paste!
A paste-like item was placed into the flames, combining into one with the liquid, turning into a gel-like substance that emitted intense vitality.
The Life Replenishing Paste was a rare mysterious item in the universe, a paste-like item produced by a 10,000-year beauty jade. It contained spiritual qi and was a rare item that could strengthen one’s vitality. Even a person who was on their deathbed would be able to hold onto their lives for an entire day and have enough time to take care of the matters following their deaths.
After adding this item, the marrow-cleansing pill’s form was slowly starting to take shape. It emitted a strange fragrance that caused one’s blood and vital energy to seethe, their body to feel restless. It was showing some signs of its medicinal effects.
However, this was not a success.
A real pill medicine had chaos as a seamless whole, not leaking any aura at all. Even when held in the hand, there wouldn’t be any smell. It would look like a lifeless object but conceal deep vitality within.
Purplestar Sand!
Sand-like material scattered down and it glimmered like stars. They were instantly roasted into liquid, dripping onto the gel-like substance.
Gloomy Termination Pearl, Blood Dipper Jade, Soul Mesmerizing Flower…
Feng Lin’s hands kept on moving, adding in all sorts of ingredients according to a certain order.
The temperature of the flames continued to rise until it reached an extremely high degree, arriving at an incandescent state.
The gel-like sphere started to contract, turning into a spherical form. The medicinal effects combined completely, and there were no impurities at all.
All that was left was the last refining step.
Light up the flame!
Flames permeated the entire furnace, filling up the entire stretch of space.
Close furnace!
Feng Lin put his hands together and the furnace’s lid suddenly closed, locking in the flames.
After passing through eight air vents, he could see a spherical object rolling and spinning rapidly in the furnace.
The sphere’s coarse surface was gradually smoothed out by the tempering from the flames.
The strange smell in the air also gradually lightened. This wasn’t a sign of failure. Instead, it was a sign that the medicinal effects were slowly being restrained. It meant that success wasn’t far off.
Nine-nine, eighty-one refinement!
The more the situation was as such, the more he mustn’t slacken.
The concoction technique for every pill was different. There were unique techniques for each of them.
The marrow-cleansing pill required performing a total of 81 changes to the flames, tempering the pill repeatedly. This would remove every bit of impurities in the marrow-cleansing pill, arriving at a 100% purity state.
Only like this would the marrow-cleansing pill not bring about any side effects after consumption, allowing for the strengthening of the body’s spirit and essence.
The pill’s success was imminent.
Feng Lin became even more careful, his hands moving like butterflies that were dancing and fluttering amongst flowers. It was a beautiful sight with a profound rhythm.
The flames in the furnace kept on surging due to his actions. The scorching flames scattered down like the spring rain that nourished all lives, seeping into the pill.
In the end, a golden and round pill medicine gradually took form in the flames.
At the sight of this, Feng Lin was overjoyed. His act of forming seals with his hands slowed down a little. Thus, the flames immediately erupted, releasing an impact that caused a stifled sound to ring out in the furnace.
The pill medicine was instantly engulfed by the flames and disappeared without a trace.
“This is bad!” He shouted in his heart and was about to stop his actions, but he was already too slow.
The pill completely exploded, turning into smoke and releasing a fragrant fog that dissipated into the air.
Just a slight tremble when forming the seals had caused the pill that was about to take form to go to waste. The amount of care required was above that of concocting gene potions.
If he were to concoct pills with the same mentality he did in creating gene potions, it would be a huge mistake.
The creation of gene potions was primarily dependent on the ratio of liquid medicine. Adjustments could be made at any moment while observing the changes to the medicinal properties.
However, alchemy concoction was to refine using flames. Success was gained at one go. There mustn’t be any mistakes, or failure would be guaranteed.
It was because the art of alchemy required such great precision that it needed to be supported by mental probing. It was impossible to succeed by relying on feeling alone.
Due to the high requirements, the effects of the pill medicine would also far surpassed that of gene potions.
The crucial point was that one failure didn’t mean anything.
Feng Lin calmed down and once again started the refining process.
Dragon-leaf Grass, Mystic Yin Water, Life Replenishing Paste… He added the ingredients into the furnace in the designated order and the flames changed accordingly, tempering and bringing out the optimum state of the medicinal properties. They then integrated together, turning into a single entity.
Very soon, the semi-completed gel-like pill medicine was once again refined.
Close furnace!
Feng Lin put his hands together and the furnace’s lid suddenly closed, locking in the flames.
This time around, he didn’t dare to let down his guard anymore. Without being affected by external factors, he closed his eyes and used only his spirit force to sense the changes of the pill medicine.
He made nine-nine, eighty-one changes to his hands as he formed the seal, refining with each change!
The pill became increasingly concentrated and the medicinal properties combined into a single entity, unable to be separated. They were locked into the many small pearls.
When he opened his eyes once again, the fire prowess dissipated and a golden pill medicine was floating in the furnace.
Feng Lin beckoned with his hand and the furnace’s lid opened naturally, with the pill medicine floating out and landing in his hand.
A pill medicine was like a material item, seeming as if forged from metal. It radiated precious light and was tough as metal, hard to be destroyed.
If an ordinary person was to swallow such a powerful item, they would die from swallowing metal even if they didn’t die from the impact of the medicinal properties.
He wondered what profoundness those legendary pills in myths and legends had to be able to let ordinary people rise tremendously.
Before he arrived at that stage, it’d be useless to think too much about it.
Feng Lin didn’t ponder too much and appreciated the medicinal prowess of the marrow-cleansing pill. He discovered that the concoction had undoubtedly been a success.
He didn’t give it much thought and just swallowed it.
The moment the seemingly material pill medicine entered his mouth, it instantly turned into a lava-like current that suddenly erupted. Endless heat energy seeped into all parts of his body: his blood and flesh, internal organs, bones…
His spine was like a dragon, seething endlessly. A large amount of the cells in his bone marrow split up into the most primitive stem cells, replenishing any minute parts of the human body.
The hidden injuries from the countless fights and massacres were all fixed; his body reached a flawless state. It started to become stronger at a speed that could be seen by the naked eye.
There was this saying in ancient terminology: Only by swallowing a single pill did I know that my destiny is in my hands and not in heaven’s control. Only when my destiny is within my control could a golden lotus be planted amidst the fire [1].
Although Feng Lin had yet to reach such a phenomenal level, he had already grasped a bit of it.
[1] A golden lotus that is grown from fire is said to be extremely rare and hard to come by.